I kill monsters, not befriend them
by JokerKing666
Summary: Harry Potter is a weak boy with about as much spine as a jellyfish right? Well that is the thought that drove him to do what Dumbledore did leaving the boy with the Dursleys. Watch your back Dumbledore because you're worst nightmare is coming to life a third time. Anti-Creature!Harry. Dark!Harry. Response to DZ2's 'I Hunt Monsters' challenge
1. Prologue

**DZ2's 'I Hunt Monsters' Challenge**  
**Plot: **At a young age, Harry was found in Privet Drive by a witch/wizard/Squib who specialized in the eradication, hunting and experimentation on Dark Creatures: as a result, a _very_ different Harry Potter came to Hogwarts. One with silver in his heart, poison in his blood, venom in his soul and a sworn hatred for _all_ monsters of magic.

**Rules:  
***Dark or Evil Harry **Dark**  
*Powerful Harry or stronger  
*NO CROSSOVERS (Crossover _references_ are allowed, but no ACTUAL XOvers)  
*The story MUST either start with Harry meeting his new mentor/guardian or his first day at Hogwarts  
*When Harry goes to Hogwarts, he's armed with more than a wand (e.g. magical artefacts/relics, weapons, magical tattoos etc.  
*If/When Harry meets a Creature-Wizard, he MUST show an intense hatred and a shoot-first, talk-later attitude  
*The ONLY Creature-Wizards Harry _cannot_ go after, owing to self-preservation, are the goblins (any 'rogue' goblins are fair game, however)  
*Any who support werewolf/vampire/other creature-wizard rights MUST be an enemy of Harry's  
*Remus MUST be considered either a traitor or the _real_ reason his parents are dead in Harry's eyes (because he's a werewolf)  
*At least once, either at Hogwarts or in the summer, Harry MUST take 'a job' targeting monsters/Creatures/Creature Wizards  
*Harry MUST have a 'trophy cabinet/case/trunk' showing his kills, successes, rewards, journals and other good things about his life  
*Harry is NOT afraid to get his hands dirty, do what must be done and even go to the extreme, both to get the job done or 'healing' himself  
*All pairings are welcome

**Guidelines: **  
*Super/OP Harry **OP eventually**  
*Dark-Lord Harry **Maybe**  
*Master of Death Harry **NO**  
*Harry joins a 'club/clan' of Monster Hunters **Accepted but its more hes adopted into one**  
*Harry doesn't go to Hogwarts until later **NO**  
*McNair, Umbridge and other anti-Creature wizards are _actually_ Harry's allies/the ones to take him in **Allies**  
*Harry takes a pet/slaves of a monster/monsters in exchange for sparing their lives, but he MUST treat them like filth **Accepted bu not until later years**  
*Harry is actually a descendant of a magical/non-magical hunter **Accepted**  
*Harry's mentor is actually a _half_-creature (e.g. Dhampir: _how Harry reacts is up to you_) **NO**  
*Slash **NO**  
*Harems **NO**  
*Harry/Multi **Possibly but no more than two if he goes that route**  
*Blood Magic, Necromancy, Runes and/or other different kinds of magic feature in Harry's arsenal **Accepted**  
*A prophecy speaks of the Hunter **Accepted**  
*Harry has/creates an alter-ego to use when he hunts **Does a disguise count as an alter-ego?**

**Forbidden:  
***Light or Grey Harry  
*Creature-liking Harry  
*The goblins on Harry's***-list (only because he's _not_ completely suicidal)  
*Remus as a friend/ally of Harry's  
*Crossovers (though references are allowed)  
*Harry shying away from things getting tough, dirty or dangerous  
*Anyone convincing Harry creature-wizards can be good  
*Harry siding with Tom

* * *

Platform nine and three quarters was packed to the gills as a couple and young man stepped through the barrier. The older male was tall and lean with a caramel complexion, hair like snow and frosty blue eyes. Dressed in a casual three-piece suit and pointed shoes covered by a duster loosely placed around his shoulders he cut a rather curious but standoffish presence.

The woman on the mans arm scoffed as he said something quietly to her and slapped his arm. With a rather flattering but conservative dress, red in color to almost match her hair, and blue-grey eyes she was a sight. Her almost honey colored tan skin seemed to shine as she turned her gaze to the young man behind her, a small smile coming to her lips. At first glance the young man didn't appear to be special or standout but she and her husband knew better. He, their son, was fairly tall for an eleven with streaked hair-primarily black with red and white streaks-, piercing blue-grey eyes and a pale tan that was leaning towards he spent far more time outside than indoors. Like them he was dressed to the nines in pressed black slacks, a long sleeve white button-down shirt that she knew hid his Hunters tattoos on the insides of his forearms, a formal silver vest with a wine-red vine-like stitching creeping up from the bottom, black pointed shoes and a duster of his own.

"Final check" the man said looking to their son.

"Main wand is in my holster in my left sleeve and back-up is in the holster in my right. School trunk in my right pocket, left pocket has my… extracurricular trunk. Relics, artifacts and weapons locked away under our family spells and wards no one can break. My hawks already gone ahead to the school. Tattoos are charged and primed if I need to kill _some thing unnatural_" the boy said and curled his lip in disgust at the thought of what the unnatural thing potentially could be. "Daggers on my belt, exorcism ring on my left hand and silver ones on right. If the worst-case scenario should ever occur, the array is charged and primed on my back to bring… _that_ to my aid."

The womans smile grew a bit as she ruffled her sons hair. "Seems you truly came into your own huh love?" she asked with a loving fondness in her eyes.

The boy snorted but looked up at his mother as he fixed his hair. "I am my parents child even if I am technically adopted. It's only natural after the ritual I'd take to the family business" he said rolling his eyes.

"Don't get smart with your mother boy" the man said cuffing his son upside the head.

"Abraham, be nice to our boy. If he was being smart or fresh I'd scold him myself" the woman said with a glare aimed at her husband briefly. "I know its not your first choice Harry but every Hunter needs a standard base line before you can join the Guild and get your license. I'd really rather prefer to send you to Durmstrang but…"

"I know, politics concerning my birth family. I'm more than frustrated at the politicking as well. Hogwarts is behind the curve in all regards and being led by a Headmaster who actively pushes _**filthy Creature Rights**_" the boy looked sick even saying it "is an abomination to the preservation of all things right and just. It's the filthy animals and half-breeds that are the cause of declining wizarding & human numbers. The only good creature is a _**dead creature**_" he said with nothing but contempt.

The man the redhead identified as Abraham smiled thinly at his son. "That's my boy" he said with a modicum of pride in his voice. Spotting a colleague nearby he nodded at the blonde-haired man before getting one in return. "Eve, we should go say our greetings to Lucius and Narcissa."

The redhead nodded directing her son to follow them toward the couple no more than fifteen feet away from them. "Lucius, Narcissa you both look well" Eve said when they were close enough.

Lucius, a pale blonde haired man with strikingly blue eyes, nodded his head at Abraham and Eve. He was familiar with the husband and wife Hunter pair as he was their son. "As well as expected if I'm to be frank. Those fools in the Wizengamot are trying my patience to its limits. Can you believe that they actually want to grant the _creature scum _a speaking voice in the chambers? Its little more than heresy" he said with a scathing tone. "Before I forget myself, I believe you left this at my mansion the last time you were training with my son Harrison."

The boy addressed as Harrison took the finely carved wooden box and pulled out a lapel pin as long as his middle finger. A closer inspection revealed it was the shrunken transfigured form of his main weapon. "It seems I did, my apologies and thanks Hunter Malfoy. I thought I had forgotten it but with the preparations to attend this… travesty calling itself a school I hadn't the time to make an appointment to return and get it" he said politely inclining his head offering the box back. He saw the blonde man return the gesture with a dismissive wave of his hand before taking the box back into his possession.

"And how many times must we remind you Harrison that you do not need to make an appointment? You carry Black Blood in your veins so that make you family. That's not to mention you and your parents are keyed into the wards" Narcissa said as she brushed a rogue strand of her blonde hair from her face.

"It is a matter of decorum and respect. A Hunters dwelling is warded for the protection of themselves and their family. No matter the relation, any outsiders must make an appoint with the Master Hunter of the home before they can cross the ward line" Harrison said after pinning the lapel on his shirt and bowed his head to Narcissa ever so slightly. "It is The Code set forth by the Guild after all."

"Which we are not yet part of cousin."

Harrison's head turned the barest semblance of a degree spotting his cousin Draco Malfoy, a miniature clone of his father Lucius, leaning on a column. "Not yet but we were raised in the shadow of its laws" he said blandly. The snort he heard escape blonde made his eyes roll as he straightened his posture a touch and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"So here's the million galleon question that is entirely rhetorical boys but-"

"Slytherin" both Harrison and Draco said simultaneously making the adults chuckle.

"Hufflepuff sympathizes with anything that has a pulse and Gryffindor is too stupid to realize the _animals_ are a threat to the continued existence of wizards & humans as a whole. Ravenclaw is an option but only for the access to the personal library of Rowena Ravenclaw herself that is supposed to be in their tower if there is any truth to the rumor" Harrison said shaking his head. "Magic that is lost to that time would be invaluable since it was a common practice to pre-emptively slaughter the _mongrels_ before they were threats to wizarding settlements and experiment on the corpses to dissect their secrets for easier extermination."

Abraham smirked a little finding his sons answer to be succinct and entirely on the nose. "And Slytherin?" he asked with a gleam shining in his eyes.

"He was Master Class Exterminator who was one of the Hunters Guild founding pillars. Given that, it is not a far stretch to assume that he hid within the castle a place only other Hunters could hope to find and use to the maximum efficiency. Magics as old as the ones believed to be in Ravenclaw's library but orders of magnitude more lethal. The notes of his experimentations should be there too. Not to mention that beside being a Master Class Exterminator, he was also a Master Class Bewitcher. Slytherin would keep his personal lab with his notes and by extension his stores of ingredients kept in timeless stasis" Draco said pushing his back off the column.

"Very good and logical points boys. You should get to your friends before the lesser descend on you" Narcissa said shooing the boys toward the train.

Harrison lagged behind a moment after giving a nod to his father and hugging his mother tight for a moment. For all his training and the like, he was still a kid and this would be the first time he was going to be away from his family for an extended time that wasn't a hunt. A couple months was a blink of an eye for a Hunter but being surrounded what he would soon label neanderthals, it would be hell.

Eve knelt down and kissed Harrison's forehead softly. "Go my bloody little raven, we're only one Summons away if you ever well and truly need us" she said in a soft warm tone. "Sharpen your talons and come Yule we'll have a Hunt ready for you to join us on."

Harrison nodded his head and straightened his clothes out before following Draco onto the steam train.

"That old coot doesn't know the danger he's in for does he?" Lucius asked rhetorically.

"Not even the most obscure speculation Lucius. He's expecting a muggle abused, weak minded simpleton. The nightmare that is inbound will put the fear of Mordred into him by the time Harry makes his point" Eve said with a vicious little smirk on her lips as the train began to move and pull away from the station.


	2. Deathly' truths

Harrison grimaced as he looked over the text in his hands. His father Abraham hadn't been too impressed with his last hunt, a small pack of werewolves, because he'd come back injured from scrapes of their claws. It was only by the grace of Kali characterized for her violence and carrying of bloody weapons, why his father favored a Hindu goddess as far as anything spiritual went was beyond him, that he _did not_ turn. Turning would have meant his parents putting him out of his misery to not suffer the curse of lycanthropy.

"Why exactly is it you're reading 'Hunting Were's for beginners' when we both know you are not?" Draco asked as he momentarily tore his gaze away from a thirteenth century Germanic text about dealing with vampires. It was old but the information was valid nonetheless and contained magics not native to the UK that was invaluable to dealing with upper echelon vampires.

"Father was less than pleased with my last performance. I made a rookie mistake while hunting a pack of werewolves and wound up being scratched. By the grace of all things unholy, and my talismans, I didn't get turned. Even the successful hunt and not being turned withstanding, I'm more disappointed in myself than he was less than pleased. It was supposed to be an easy Hunt and… Kali's left tit!" Harrison growled tossing the book in hands away. "They had an actual Alpha with them! That's why they weren't a dysfunctional unorganized mess. I am _so_ having words with that idiot! He said they were all bitten and turned monstrosities with no leadership whatsoever!" For a moment his eyes flashed mismatched colors, his left eye going a shade of mercurial silver and his right a molten copper shade, like his parents did when angered.

"Cousin, your eyes" Draco said without a care in the world. He'd seen Harrison slip control more than enough to know that if it was only his eyes changing there was no danger to anyone. If his hands began to get twitchy though, that was a bad sign for all involved including him.

A female sitting beside Harrison sighed and cuffed the boy upside the head. "Deal with the idiot over Yule break before you and your parents go Hunting. Getting bent out of shape over it now will serve no purpose other than irritating you and in turn irritating us" she said.

Harrison turned his head and glared lightly at his friend though his gaze was back to blue-grey instead of mismatched silver and copper. The girl who cuffed him upside the head was a fellow Hunter, well Huntress if you wanted to be gender specific correct, trainee by the name of Daphne Greengrass. With long blonde hair, blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and her curves already beginning to fill out it would be an insult to call her anything but cute. In time it would switch to beautiful and he knew that but now was not the time for such a word to be applied. _'Not to mention she is technically your fiancée thanks to your parents doings' _a part of his mind said with a snicker. "There was no need for that Daphne" he said with a scowl.

"When you stop acting like a fresh trainee who doesn't know which end of a stake to drive through a vampires heart so it stuns the leech long enough to sever the head and set fire to the body I won't need to do that now will I Harrison?" Daphne asked rhetorically with an arched eyebrow.

Draco merely smirked at the lovers squabble between the two. If he didn't know better he would have called them an old married couple with how they argued. _'Not that it isn't far off considering their engagement' _he thought to himself as he turned his gaze back to the text in his hands. Yes, the next seven years would be interesting if they all got into Slytherin. It'd piss off Dumbledore and the 'Light' faction while the 'Dark' faction would continue to embrace his cousin as one of them because of his views & actions.

* * *

Inside the Headmasters Quarters of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry Albus Dumbledore paced the length of his office, the part he used to meet with staff and when needed students, with a troubled expression. While he was acutely aware of the fact the students were mere hours away, his mind was focused on one student who _wouldn't _among the incoming First Years- Harry James Potter. No matter how many times he looked to the Admission Book, a magical artifact as old as Hogwarts itself when the Founders began the school, in his passing paces the violent red slash through the name was still there. None of his charms were working, not even the more dubious and illegal blood trackers. For that to be the case meant only one thing and he feared it because it meant one very real distinct possibly- Harry James Potter was _dead_. The last of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter was _dead because of __**HIS actions**__! _

James and Lily met their end at Voldemort in Godric's Hollow because he told them it was unsafe to remain at the ancestral Potter Manor. It was the obvious answer to their disappearance and would be targeted even with the ancient & powerful war wards that lined the property. It was _his suggestion_ they moved to safety in the Godric's Hollow home because it was still a Potter property but not one that was really known about to the public. It was _his suggestion_ that the Potter's change Secret Keepers of the Fidelus charmed property from Sirius Black, family friend and godfather to the only Potter Heir, to Peter Pettigrew since the cowardly Marauder was bound to fly under the Death Eater radar as the **real ** Secret Keeper.

Ultimately though it was _his firm order_ Harry James Potter be placed in the care of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, the only remaining blood relatives Harry had on any side. Minerva had protested they were the most vile sort of muggle but he refused to listen to reason. He left infant Harry James Potter in a basket wrapped only with a thin blanket and a note. He expected them to protect him and..

"Albus, the carriages are pulling up to the school."

The interruption to his thought made the aged Headmaster nearly jump out of his skin. A look to the nearest clock showed that what he had thought to be minutes of pacing turned out to be _hours_. "I see, thank you for alerting me Minerva" he said with a forced thin smile that did not reach his eyes which were not twinkling for the first time in a long time.

The Scottish witch saw the wizened wizard appearing to have come to bear a heavy invisible load on his shoulders. "Is something the matter Albus?" she asked taking a few steps toward the man only to stop when he pointed his finger at the Admission Book. With weariness in her bones she crossed to the book. Seeing the violent red slash through the name Harry James Potter her skin went beyond pallid. "Th-there must be a.. a mistake! You would have known if he was in danger!" she said with a scathing accusatory tone.

"Red is… Red is dead Minerva… I should have listened to you about those… animals" Albus said with a despondent tone. His gaze lifted to find a hatred and fury filled Minerva McGonagall glaring at him.

"This is all your fault! I told you those muggles were the worst sort! That he was unsafe with them! And where is he now? The last link of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter is _dead_ because you always have to have the last word & be right! I hope it was worth it for that Morgana be damned prophecy of yours!" With all said McGonagall stormed out of the office despite the plea for her to stop and heed reason, that he had not meant for Harry to die. It didn't matter to her _what_ Albus' intentions had been, he had the blood and no doubt murder of an innocent child on his hands now.

* * *

Harrison sneezed hard making the text in Draco's hands slam into his nose. "Someone is talking about me" he said with a dark scowl. "It isn't my parents, our allies or my trainers… No, he's not that stupid is he?" he muttered to himself.

Draco glared over the spine of his book as they along with the rest of the to-be-sorted First Years waited outside of a large door. "Of course he is. The old coot would sell his mother to a whore house if it meant more fame, prestige and power to control the sheep" he said with a dark sneer. He, and by extension Daphne, knew just who the 'he' that Harrison was talking about: Albus one too many names Dumbledore.

"His mother and father happen to be dead Draco. Given his position as the 'Leader of the Light' its so far out of the realm of probabilities the fossil would use necromancy to resurrect a zombie of his mother and sell it to a whore house. That is a decidedly 'Dark Wizard' move worthy of his ex-lover Grindelwald" Daphne said putting in her two cents. "Beyond all that, he was obsessed with _them and their influence_ so its more likely he finally looked at the Admission Book & noticed something rather.. unfortunate."

Harrison said nothing as he tapped his foot impatiently. While their allies had the context to understand the conversation for what it was, everyone else who was near enough to hear was lost. "I don't care either way, lets stop talking about it before another one of the _filth _appears and I cannot reign in my itchy tendencies" he said as his hands linked raising over his head and his exorcism ring stabbed into the poltergeist that appeared from a wall. A borderline cruel smirk appeared as the tendrils of magic tried to anchor the spirit but the magic of his ring already severed the link. The particles of magic that exploded outwards before being sucked into his ring blinded all the First Years save Harrison, Daphne and Draco for a moment as the doors opened revealing a very stern looking witch with no readable expression on her person at all.

"Before the lot of you are Sorted, I would like to introduce myself and say a few words to you all. I am the Deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration professor and Gryffindor Head of House Minerva McGonagall. Shortly you will be sorted into one of the four Houses that make up this school; those four Houses being Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor" Minerva said as her gaze scanned the crowd of First Years with an expectant glare to keep them silent. "Your House will be like your family over the next seven years. Rule breaking and misbehavior will cost your House points while your accomplishments and merits will earn your House points towards the year end House Cup." She paused as her gaze settled on a young man with multi-colored hair. For some reason he felt familiar but she couldn't place why. "There will be those in the upper years of your Houses who may try to get you to believe in certain biases or rivalries, I would not listen if you wish to be spared drama or unpleasantries during your tenure here as a student. In here your worst consequence is expulsion from these hallowed magical halls but in the real adult world? The less said about being a mad man or a biased fool the better" she said with a sniff as she turned away flicking the door open with her wand. The command to follow her was given moments later.

"I smell drama~" a rather sing song tone said from behind the group of Harrison, Daphne and Draco as all three turned to look briefly. Spotting the rather plain half-blood Tracy Davis the boys rolled their eyes. It wasn't a dislike for the girl but rather she seemed like an inescapable tagalong passenger when it came to Daphne.

"I suspect it has to do with why Harrison sneezed so hard earlier. The fact she left off her impromptu speech about mad men and biased fools tells me a lot" Draco said tapping his text with his wand shrinking it before putting it in his pocket.

"No really? I thought she being facetious just to facetious" Harrison said with a slow drawl, his words dripping poison.

"I know where you sleep Van Helsing" Draco shot back.

"Only at home cousin" Harrison said with a smirk as his little group plus Tracy passed into the hall packed with four long tables practically packed to the gills with other kids of all ages. "And only when I'm not on a Hunt. Just remember I sleep with a mithril dagger under my pillow and one eye open at all times."

Tracy, the only non-Hunter trainee of the quartet, scowled to herself at the way Harrison casually remarked about sleeping with such a dangerous object on hand at seemingly all times. Mithril was a hard enough raw ore for creature races to find, mine, smelt and craft but for humans to do it? It was nearly impossible! Not to mention that the few races that had swathes of land rich in raw mithril veins had a severe dislike or hatred of wizard kind. "Isn't sleeping with something like that a tad paranoid Harrison?" she asked while the first students began to be sorted.

"Not even in the slightest if you knew the true threats lurking in the darkness" Draco, Harrison and Daphne said perfectly in-synch with each other.

Tracy shuddered at that. Harrison and Draco's intense disgust of anything creature or creature-blooded was something she knew all too well but the distasteful apathy that escaped Daphne's lips surprised her. Her blonde friend was usually a person of limited generosity on a good day with very few things that made her patience thin but she'd never seen Daphne so quick, in-synch no less, to agree with the harsh views of Harrison and Draco regarding _'true threats lurking in the darkness'_; the writing was clear as day on the wall, the three meant creatures and their spawn.

"Davis, Tracy!"

Tracy scampered up to the stool grateful for the momentary escape. The hat that divided them was on her head for nearly a minute before "**SLYTHERIN!**" was loudly proclaimed to the hall. There was a smattering of applause, notably none from Gryffindor, as she went to join the green and silver trim robed students at the far-left table clapping politely but unenthusiastically.

More students were sorted, most to either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor with the odd Ravenclaw, before McGonagall announced "Greengrass, Daphne!".

Daphne strode up to the stool with the grace and poise of a frigid queen while shooting acidic glares at some Gryffindor boy who had the stupidity to ogle her like a piece of meat. While she awaited the hats decision her gaze met Harrison's arching a brow the tiniest degree asking a silent question. The action she saw him take in return, a very subtle motion of his hand resulting in the very piece of the bench the boy sat on breaking and crashing to the masonry where an audible crack of bone splintering echoed, made a cold tiny smirk etch itself on her lips as the older Gryffindors rushed to the boys aid where his voice was several octaves higher and holding onto his crotch in pain while saying his pelvis felt like it was split. "**SLYTHERIN!**"

More students were sorted and when Draco went up the hat was barely on his head before its declaration sent the blonde Pureblood to join Daphne and Tracy in Slytherin. This didn't surprise Harrison one bit since nearly every Malfoy had been a Slytherin in the last several hundred years since they emigrated to England after being exiled from Magical France around the time of the Witch Hunts; the only _known _non-Slytherin was Draco's mother Narcissa Malfoy, albeit she was still a Black in name at the time, who had been a Ravenclaw.

"Van Helsing, Harrison!"

Whispers broke out as nearly every eye followed the multi-hair colored youth strode toward the stool with a rather bored expression. Everyone in the room knew the name Van Helsing and for one to attend Hogwarts was a shock. While rumors would paint them as 'Dark but tolerable' witches and wizards, anyone with a brain knew what they did; they hunted creatures and killed them. They did the work of the Hunters Guild. Muggle-borns on the other hand had wide eyes and tried to lean forward to get as close a look at the young man. As far as most of them knew, the name Van Helsing was a _fictional _name of _fictional _creature slayer. If there really was a Van Helsing family and the whispers calling him a 'creature killer legacy' what else of the muggle culture they believed to be _fiction_ was actually real?

'_My my Mr. Van Helsing, I haven't had the pleasure of sorting one descended of your blood for generations. Let me see what is in your head and… Yes, plenty of courage and a mind like a steely. Loyal but only to the smallest circle that has proven themselves to you. Cunning, ambition and ruthlessness is in no short supply either I see.'_

Harrison merely arched a brow listening to the internal monologue the hat was going on about. There were only two acceptable solutions and of the two, one was much more preferable over the other. "I don't have all night you ratty piece of fabric" he said tapping his foot. "Say it already or I'll burn you to cinders with Greek Fire."

'_Not to mention an inclination towards violence.. There is only one place for you __**Mr. Potter**__'_ the hat thought with what passed for a smile on its cloth 'face' as Harrison tensed. _'Nothing gets by me boy but fret not, the knowledge I have seen in your mind is safe. No one, not even the Headmaster or Deputy Headmistress, can force me to expel the secrets I have seen inside the minds of those I sort. The Founders, Rowena and Salazar to be specific, saw to that personally when they created me with input from Godric and Helga. I look forward to seeing what chaos you and your Hunter companions stir up in…'_

"**SLYTHERIN!**"

As Harrison took the hat off his head and went to hand it back the magical artifact burst into greenish-white flames. Minerva whipped out her wand and tried to put it out with a water spell. Instead of extinguishing the burning hat like it should've, the burning cloth flared up consuming it entirely as Harrison dropped it like he was surprised as McGonagall was. No one and no _thing_, especially not a borderline sentient magical artifact, was going to put him in the crosshairs of a second coming of Hitler in the form of Albus Dumbledore; he'd see the world burn and stand on a mountain of corpses slain by his own doing before that happened.

Raw magic swept across the room and managed to extinguish the fire. Instead of a burned hat where Harrison dropped, all that remained was a pile of white ash as he walked away. No professor could pin it to him and the one person who_ could_, that person being Daphne since she was more than acquainted with his proficiency with that particular cursed fire, wasn't about to say it was his doing. Even if he was to be blamed it would be so easy to shift the blame on 'accidental magic' since that was precisely why ninety nine percent of the kids here were enrolled in Hogwarts to begin with, to learn control of their magic.

"Rocking the boat already? The hat had to of said something to you for your magic to spark like" Daphne said when Harrison took the seat between her and Tracy that was across from Draco.

Harrison arched his eyebrows to certain degrees and heights while the final students were sorted, the last being a dark-skinned boy named Zabini joining their table. "I don't know what you're talking about. It was accidental magic" he said lying through his teeth flawlessly with an 'innocent' smile.

Daphne and Draco scoffed at that while Tracy voiced their disbelief saying 'Sure and I'm a dragon mother that dances the waltz' while rolling her eyes.

"Now onto announcements before we all eat. The third floor corridor on the right hand side is off limits to those who wish to die a most painful death. Mr. Filch our caretaker would like to remind everyone" Dumbledore looked to the Gryffindor table at two particular redheaded boys as he said this "that the list of banned items has been posted to each and every common room. All students are reminded to stay away from the Forbidden Forest. I would really like to stop repeating myself after these many decades of having to explain **why** the Forbidden Forest is called such." He paused for a moment as his gaze swept the tables and stopped on the Slytherin one as his eyes landed on the Van Helsing boy. Whatever the Greengrass Heiress had said, her back was to him so he was unable to read her lips and he wasn't about try a passive legimency probe on an Ancient and Noble Heiress with her House Heir ring that would protect her mind from such weak forms of the magic, prompted the boy to deny being behind the Sorting Hat going up in flames. Why would the boy say that? A fire curse of a magnitude it reduced the Sorting Hat, a magical artifact that was over a thousand years old, was beyond an eleven year old boys level even if he was the living legacy of Europe's most feared Creature Hunter clans. "Lastly I would like to ask you all to join me in a moment of silence. Many of you no doubt heard the rumor that Harry Potter would be joining us this year forward. It is with a heavy heart… I must say that, after consulting various artifacts in my possession as Headmaster of this school, Harry Potter is no longer among the living."

Horrified gasps rose up across the hall at the news. After a decade of Dumbledore assuring and telling the whole of wizarding Britain that Harry was being guarded in a safe place, how could he have gone and died under the mans watch?! The entirety of Gryffindor seemed to revolt against the news yelling out that it couldn't be true. Hufflepuff's table looked horrified and more than a few of them, mainly the girls, had misty eyes feeling a loss for the boy who was lost. Ravenclaw's students looked dubious of the announcement and it showed on the faces of many, particularly the older year students. What horrified nearly everyone who gasped initially was the fact a worrying number of Slytherin's actually _cheered_ at the news or laughed in joy.

Unnoticed by all but Daphne, Draco and Tracy Harrison was already bored and digging the blunt end of his knife over the table top while the staff tried to reign in control. Daphne and Draco understood his boredom while Tracy did not, a necessary thing for the time being. He didn't particularly trust her though he admitted her eye when it came to runes was something to keep track of if she ended up being a Rune Savant. "This is why I wanted to go Durmstrang or the Blackwater Institute" he muttered under his breath while kneading his temple with his free hand. If people were going to act like this to old news it was going to be a _**long, long year**_.


End file.
